Curriculum

The mission of our Foot and Ankle Surgical Residency Training Program is to promote, support, augment, develop, and encourage comprehensive investigative knowledge of the medical and surgical care of the foot, ankle and lower leg.

The primary goal of our program is to provide a sound academic and clinical educational foundation for all of our residents. Our program has been developed with special emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach to lower extremity disorders.

The second goal of the program is to provide practitioners who have a dedicated interest in foot and ankle disorders with exposure to new knowledge, skills and techniques to help optimize patient care. We meet educational needs of residents and practitioners through didactic learning opportunities such as continuing medical education (CME) seminars, weekly grand rounds, radiology reviews, and other modalities.

The following sections provide details of our clinical and didactic educational experiences.

Our program embraces total care of the foot and ankle. We manage a broad variety of diseases and deformities of the adult and child forefoot, hindfoot, and ankle with respect to diabetes, trauma, sports, and arthritis, and we perform various types of reconstructive procedures.

Our residents can expect to have an extensive surgical and clinical exposure to a wide range of conditions, reflecting the entire spectrum of foot and ankle problems, including congenital, traumatic, and general disorders. Our Foot and Ankle Institute serves as a tertiary referral center for complex foot and ankle pathology. This includes a large number of revisional cases referred from the region, primarily Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and New York, but we also get referrals from eastern seaboard states. Standard and complex reconstructions for first-ray problems, forefoot / midfoot / hindfoot and ankle deformities, arthritis, sports conditions, acute/chronic trauma, Charcot-related disorders, nerve injuries, and tendinopathy are commonly treated.

Our residents benefit from working in our patient clinic with one-on-one teaching.

Our residents participate in more than 5,000 foot and ankle surgical procedures annually, including procedures involving virtually every aspect of foot and ankle reconstruction.

Clinical rotations for each year are in the tables that follow. Surgical sites include:

Our program strives to serve as an educational resource, not only to residents but also to practitioners, including physicians, allied health professionals and ancillary medical personnel. Our residents participate in the following activities during the course of an academic year:

Radiology Rounds (weekly): Provide residents an opportunity to present cases to attending physicians and fellow residents. The knowledge gained from these discussions is valuable in selecting procedures and techniques to be used and in managing the patient's postoperative course and any complications.

Physical Diagnosis Course: This two-day course providers a refresher on the nuances of the head-to-toe physical examination. It helps residents meet and exceed expectations throughout their medical and surgical rotations. Residents must pass the final examination to achieve certification.